Sticky Fingers
by Kalta79
Summary: Sequel to Dirty Work
1. Chapter 1

Reno punched the wall in Tseng's hospital room. _Damn Sephiroth_! Not only did he nearly kill Tseng, he **murdered** Aerith in cold blood. And there was nothing Reno could do about it. He didn't know why Aerith couldn't have remained just another woman to him. But after that first day, she frequently became part of his job. And she would tease him about keeping a record of their trysts in her diary whenever she got a chance. **_Her diary_**! Tseng would kill him if he ever found out. He better find it now...turning to leave, he bumped into Rude.

"Dammit!" Rude exclaimed as some of the hot coffee spilled on him.

"Sorry partner, something came up, I'll be back soon." Reno said before hurrying out the door.

* * *

Reno stood at a safe distance from the house where Aerith had lived with her foster mother, using his binoculars to make sure there was no signs of body heat in there, so he would have time to search for her diary without being interrupted. Picking the lock for the door, he entered the house and found her bedroom.

He took a deep breath as he realized she would never be here again. Focusing on his reason for being here, he rummaged through all her drawers and in her closet, trying to think where she would have hidden it. Sitting down on her bed in desperation, he realizes something's not right. Standing up and looking at the mattress, he noticed one corner was slightly higher than the others. Lifting it up, he was stunned to see the jacket he had given her that first day folded up nicely, and when he grabbed it, it felt heavier than it should. Putting the mattress back down, he put the jacket on the bed and unfolded it to reveal her diary. Hearing a noise at the front door, he grabbed the jacket and diary and went out the bedroom window.

* * *

He dropped the jacket and diary off at his place before heading back to the hospital. Rude was waiting for him, none too happy.

"About time you got back. Now it's my turn to have a break." Rude said before he left.

Reno positioned the chairs so he could sleep comfortably and took a nap.

* * *

 _Aerith thought she noticed a red spike of hair from behind one of the vendor booths as the group wandered through Gold Saucer, but it disappeared when she looked again. Was Reno following them? Someone was reporting back on their activities to Shinra. She had an idea on how to find out._

 _Aerith walked into Cloud's room that night, surprising him._

 _"What are you doing here?" Cloud asked her._

 _"Let's go ride the gondola." she replied._

 _Aerith had Cloud buy her a cotton candy on their way to the ride, and once there, Cloud was surprised to find Yuffie there waiting for them._

 _"You should go on the ride with her." Aerith said. "I'm not feeling good, maybe that cotton candy was too much for me." She hurriedly left them there._

 _"Well, let's go." Yuffie said, smiling at Cloud, who realized he was stuck for it._

 _Reno was eating some candy corn by the controls to the gondola ride, having bribed the employee to let him take over for a while after the ride started. He was wondering how long before it was Rude's turn to watch the Boring Brigade. He was glad Aerith had escaped the lab, but if he was ordered to…he was startled by a sudden movement to his right. He put his hand on his rod and turned to see Aerith standing there with a smug expression on her face._

 _"Wha…you're supposed to be on the gondola with Cloud!" Reno exclaimed._

 _"He and Yuffie are doing it instead." Aerith informed him._

 _"So, how do you like him?" Reno couldn't stop himself from asking._

 _"I guess I just have a thing for spiky hair." Aerith said as she touched his hair and kissed him._

 _As Reno undressed her, she finished unbuttoning his shirt, running her hands over his chest before she unfastened his pants. As he pulled her down to the ground, she hit the button on the control panel that would make the gondola ride continue indefinitely._

 _Aerith was prepared for her body's reaction this time, and while she still felt her connection to the planet intensify again as Reno lived up to his reputation, she managed to stay in her own body as she exploded._

 _Reno collapsed against her as their mutual climax was just as intense as last time. He wondered if it was because she was an Ancient that sex with her was different from all his other women. He felt something extra when he was with her._

 _"To answer your question, Cloud's okay, but sometimes he acts like a sullen jerk." Aerith said as she ran her hands over Reno's chest again._

 _Reno grabbed her hands, looking at them, noticing something he hadn't earlier. "You've got sticky fingers."_

 _"It was probably the cotton candy." Aerith said, sighing as Reno kissed the residue off her fingers. When he was done, she laid herself on top of him. "I may have cotton candy fingers, but you've got candy corn breath." she said as she kissed him._

 _When they had sated themselves a second time, they realized they needed to get dressed and stop the gondola ride before they were discovered._

 _"Thanks for more material for my diary." she teased before kissing him and running off back to her hotel room._

* * *

Reno woke up, surprised to have dreamt about that time at Gold Saucer with Aerith. It was after that night that if he was following them, she would make an excuse to wander off for a short while and they would have sex, or if the Boring Brigade were staying at an inn, she would leave her window open for him. The night at the Gongaga village inn was the last time he saw her, because she got the fool idea to stop Sephiroth herself. He had bitched himself out bad for their unspoken rule never to talk about their 'professional' lives.

Elena walked in to Tseng's hospital room and told Reno to go home, she'd stay with him until he woke up. Knowing she meant it, Reno stood up and left. Once back in his apartment, he found he couldn't bring himself to burn it, even though it would ensure no one would ever find out about them. It was all that was left of her. He folded it back up in the jacket he had given her and hid it. He'd hide the diary in his office desk tomorrow, no one could find anything there.

* * *

Reno got in bed, eager to go to sleep and wake up to a new day that wasn't the 2 year anniversary of Aerith's death. He woke up a little while later, hearing a noise, and he turned the light on, noticing that his folded up jacket containing her diary that he had retrieved from the office was in a pile on his floor. He was sure he had left it on the chair. Shrugging, he turned the light off and went back to bed.

A little while later, he woke up again and noticed the jacket wasn't folded around the diary anymore. "Who's there?" he called out. When there was no response, he frowned and went back to sleep again.

The third time he woke up, he noticed the diary was totally off the jacket. He kept the lights off and went to make sure he was alone. When he came back to his bedroom, he was surprised to see the jacket on his bed. Not only that, it was moving, and he realized it was become there was someone in it.

"Who are you?" he demanded to know, reaching for one of the weapons that he kept strategically throughout his apartment.

"I…I'm not quite sure. I think I know you though." A familiar voice answered.

"Aerith?!" Reno dropped his weapon in shock.


	2. Chapter 2

Reno turned the light on was doubly surprised. It was a woman, and she did sound like Aerith, and her body looked like he remembered, but the hair and eye color was wrong. This woman had black hair and blue eyes. Reno cautiously approached his bed as the woman blinked and covered her eyes from the sudden light.

"Who are you?" Reno demanded of her again.

"Does that light have to be so bright?" she asked.

"Tell me who you are and why you're here and maybe I'll turn it down." Reno said.

"I told you, I'm not sure. Everything is blurry." She pulled the jacket tighter around her. "And cold."

Reno grabbed a nightshirt from his drawer and gave it to her. Then he got a spare blanket and pointed towards the living room. "You can sleep on the couch."

She tried to get off the bed after she got the nightshirt on, but her legs were unsteady, so Reno picked her up and carried her to the living room and gently put her down on the couch. As he spread the blanket over her, she grabbed his hand.

"I do think I remember you." she said.

"You can tell me all about it in the morning." Reno said, putting her hand down on the blanket.

Once back in his bed, he couldn't get back to sleep. He was conflicted… _if it really was Aerith, why was her hair and eye color different? And if it wasn't her, who was it? Could there be female Remnants? Cloud destroyed them all and Sephiroth again two days ago, didn't he? If she wasn't Aerith or a Remnant, what was she? He did want Aerith back, but her, not a fake._

Soon it was morning, and Reno shut his alarm clock off, even though he didn't need it, he had a long sleepless night. He took a quick shower before getting dressed for work, and went into the living room, where he saw the woman still asleep. He stood over the couch for a moment, watching her chest rise and fall before gently shaking her awake.

"Rise and shine." he said.

She opened her eyes slowly, and looked at him cautiously. "Rise and shine?" she asked.

"Yeah, I've got to get to work. Come on, I'll show you where the kitchen is."

Reno had to help her to the kitchen again, her legs were still unsteady. He pointed out where everything was, then went back to his room, grabbing Aerith's diary and sticking it in his pocket. If that woman wasn't her, he didn't want to leave the diary around her, because she could read it and be able to fool people by knowing things only Aerith would.

"I'll be back in a few hours. Don't leave." Reno locked the door behind him, leaving a woman who looked as confused as he felt.

***

"What's with you?" Rude asked. "You're somewhere else today."

"Oh, I didn't sleep last night." Reno replied.

"Another one of your women keep you up?"

"You have no idea." Reno said.

Reno decided to go to the WRO labs for his lunch break, and luckily Reeve was there, talking to a couple scientists.

"What do you know about the Ancients' death rituals?" Reno asked after Reeve greeted him.

"What do you mean?" Reeve inquired.

"Did they do anything specific to keep the dead actually dead?"

"I'm not sure I know…do you mean like ghosts?"

"Something like that. Would it be possible for the dead to come back? I mean if Sephiroth can use the lifestream to be reborn, could the Ancients do it too?"

"I'll look into it and get back to you. Why do you want to know?"

"Just wondering. Thanks, Reeve."

***

When Reno entered the apartment that evening, he was relieved to see the woman still there. She was walking better, and almost smiled when she saw Reno walk in the door. He had picked up some food for dinner, and handed her what he had picked out for her.

"Do you remember anything yet?" he casually asked.

"I'm not sure, it's confusing." she replied.

After dinner, he showed her the TV. "Maybe this will help you remember." he said as he handed her the remote.

He got in bed, the woman still watching the TV. He really hoped it was Aerith, not sure what he would have to do if it wasn't.

He woke up suddenly a little while later, and realized the woman was getting into bed with him. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"I think I remember something…candy corn." she said, and kissed him, running her hands over his chest.

Reno hesitated a moment before responding as the woman took his hands and put them over the buttons to her nightshirt. She undressed him as he unbuttoned the nightshirt. Feeling her breasts beneath his hands was the last encouragement he needed.

After Reno had fallen asleep, the woman lay in his arms, wishing she could remember things that weren't so confusing. She had remembered something sexual about him and candy corn, a horrible pain in her chest, and a hair ribbon. She curled against Reno, pulling his arms tight around her, being with him the only thing that made sense to her right now.


	3. Chapter 3

Reno woke up and sighed to find her still in his arms. He really hoped this was the real Aerith. Now it should be safer for her at least, there was no one left who would hunt her down, him included. She woke up then and tentatively smiled at him.

"Do you remember what your name is?" he asked as he gently smoothed her hair back from her face.

She concentrated for a moment and then frowned as she shook her head.

"Do you remember what my name is?" he prodded.

"Candy Corn?" she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

He snorted. "If I'm Candy Corn, you're Cotton Candy!"

She got a puzzled look on her face as something about cotton candy almost got a memory back for her. She started feeling extremely frustrated about her lack of knowledge of herself.

"Hey, it's okay." Reno said as he saw her getting upset. "You'll remember when you're ready to."

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Reno." he said.

That name didn't do anything to her head, which slightly confused her. Reno started to get out of bed, and she grabbed at him in a panic.

"It's okay, I'm just gonna take a shower. You can watch TV again if you want, or find something for breakfast. And whatever you do, think about what you want your name to be while you're doing it." Reno said before gently removing her hands from his arm and heading to the bathroom.

She stayed in bed, thinking about what he said until he came back out and got dressed for work, then she got out of bed and followed him to the door.

"I'm just going to work. It's best if you stay here until you remember. I don't want you getting hurt, so don't leave unless I'm with you, okay? Have you decided what you want your name to be yet?"

"No." she replied.

"I'll be back for lunch." Reno said as he closed and locked the door behind him.

She gave an involuntary twitch as he left. Sometimes she thought she heard voices, and when he was there, she could ignore them. She went to the bathroom to brush her hair, and stared at herself in the mirror as she groomed herself. Something seemed wrong to her, but she didn't know what. When she was done with her hair, she went to touch her reflection, and it seemed to change for a moment, her hair and eye color changing, and the voices tried to tell her something again. When she took her hand away, the other image vanished along with the voices.

She hurriedly left the bathroom, going into the living room and turning the TV on loudly, and then went into the kitchen to find something to eat.

* * *

When Reno came home during his lunch break, he found her asleep on the couch, the TV blaring. He put the grocery bags on the counter and went over to turn the TV off. The sudden lack of noise woke her up.

"I think I want to be Ravena." she blurted out, having been fascinated by a TV show about the folklore involving ravens. And her hair was dark like them.

Reno nodded. "Ravena it is then. Are you hungry?"

"Yeah." she said, and followed him into the kitchen.

"I, um, did some shopping. I'm not sure what you'd like, lemme know what you want." Reno started putting items from the bags onto the counter.

Ravena picked out a fruit salad and a small veggie and cheese assortment. Reno gave them to her, then put everything else in the fridge and heated up some leftover pizza for himself. As they ate together, he realized she had nothing to wear except his nightshirt.

"Come here." he said and led her back to the living room after they finished eating.

He turned the TV on to a home shopping channel featuring women's clothing, that he watched late at night when they had nothing but lingerie models on and he had seen all the pornos that were on.

"Order yourself two outfits and get the fastest shipping possible." Reno told her, pulling out his wallet and giving his credit card to her, then getting the landline phone and handing that to her as well. "But **only two**. I'll take you shopping for more when I have the day off. I've got to get back to work now."

Ravena stared at the credit card as she heard the door close, then looked at the TV. It was two hours before she saw something she wanted.

The next day while they were eating dinner, there was a knock at the door. Reno got up to answer it, and Ravena heard an unhappy exclamation from him. He came back into the room a few moments later, carrying four medium sized boxes and dumping them on the floor in front of her.

"Here's your clothes! I thought I told you only two!" Reno angrily snapped at her.

Ravena's lips quavered. "I…I had to buy lots of them because I didn't know what size I was. I'm sorry."

Her distraught expression calmed him down. "It's okay. I forgot about sizes. Whatever doesn't fit we'll return." he said.

* * *

When Reno got in his bed later that night, Ravena was there waiting for him, in a stunning piece of lingerie.

"I did buy this too, just for you to take off." she admitted.

Reno willingly obliged her, and Ravena clung to him as he entered her. It felt so right to her, or at least it did until she felt the voices again, much louder this time. The more enjoyment she got from Reno, the worse it got.

"Leave me alone!" she screamed.

Reno froze, confused. "You want me to stop?"

"No, not you, please don't stop." Ravena clung harder to him.

Reno looked sharply at her but her hands encouraged him to continue. When they were done, he held her tightly to him.

"Now will you tell me what that was about?" he asked.

"It wasn't you, I swear. It was _them_." she replied.

" _Them_?" he questioned her.

"I…I hear voices in my head. They keep trying to tell me something." Ravena expected him to make fun of her, because it sounded extremely silly when she said it out loud, but he just nodded.

"It's okay." He kissed the top of her forehead, thinking that maybe he needed to give her the diary to read. If the voices were coming from the planet, then she was Aerith and she deserved to not be tormented by not knowing who she was.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning, just before he left for work, Reno took out the diary from its hiding spot "If you want, read this while I'm gone. It might help make the voices stop bothering you." he said as he put it out the counter next to her where she was eating breakfast, then left.

After she had finished eating, Ravena stared hard at the diary, and when she reached out to take it, the voices started again, this time sounding encouraging, but she snatched her hand away and went to watch TV again. A little while later, she was drawn back to it, and she just stood there staring at it, then went back to living room. She kept doing that until she finally grabbed the diary and threw it down on the coffee table next to the couch in the living room.

* * *

Reeve had finally called Reno back, so he went over the WRO building and headed straight for Reeve's office.

"What'd you find out?" Reno asked, plopping down in the closest chair.

"Unfortunately, hardly anything. The hieroglyphics in the Temple of the Ancients was the best record of them that we had, but you know that was destroyed, and the remaining info we have is sketchy at best. There was something about them being reborn, but as in reincarnation, not like the Remnants and Sephiroth."

"Okay, thanks Reeve." Reno tried to hide his disappointment. He was hoping for an answer as to why a naked woman just appeared in his bed without alcohol or money being involved.

* * *

When Reno came home for lunch, he found Ravena watching TV again, the diary on the coffee table next to her.

"Did it help?" he asked her, gesturing towards the diary.

"I…I haven't looked at it. Wo…would you read it to me?" she asked.

"Uh, sure." Reno sat down next to her on the couch, turning the TV off and picking up the diary. Ravena cuddled up against him as he started reading, and she wondered who this Aerith was.

Reno read the entries from her childhood until puberty, and then realized she had fallen asleep. He carefully got up, gently laying her down on the couch as he did so. He put the diary back down on the coffee table, then grabbed the spare blanket and covered her before heading back to work.

* * *

Ravena had a weird dream, full of disjointed scenes. She was captive somewhere, with someone who claimed to be her mother. Then she was at a train station, before being in a flower garden. Suddenly a sword appeared, flying straight at her. She woke up screaming, her hands raised in self-defense. She took deep ragged breaths, trying to calm down, realizing it hurt to breathe. She pulled her shirt up, and saw a wound appear in the middle of her chest, the blood pouring out everywhere. Panicking, she tried to get up off the couch, but her legs felt so weak, she fell and hit her head on the edge of the coffee table.

* * *

Reno found her there on the floor, unconscious. He checked her vitals, and then picked her up and put her back on the couch. A few moments later, she woke up confused, especially when she realized the wound was gone and there was no blood anywhere.

"What happened, Ravena?" he asked.

"I fell." she replied.

"Are you okay now?"

"I'm…I'm not sure."

"Are you hungry?"

Ravena nodded, and Reno pulled a bunch of papers out of his jacket pocket, handing them to her.

"See which of these takeout places sounds good to you, and we'll order dinner from them, okay?" Reno stood up and went into the bathroom to take a shower.

When he came back out to the living room, Ravena handed him her choice.

"Pizza…do you know what toppings you want?" Reno asked her. Ravena shook her head. "Well, we'll order two. One with all the meat toppings, one with all the veggie toppings, and you can taste them all and see what you like."

By the time the pizzas arrived, Ravena was feeling better. After eating a piece of all the toppings, she decided that she liked the veggie pizza better, which pleased Reno who got the meat pizza all to himself.

* * *

Reno woke up to Ravena standing by his side of the bed. She handed him the diary.

"Would you finish reading this to me?" she asked.

"Uh, sure." Reno sleepily replied as he turned the nightstand light on.

Ravena crawled into bed with him, positioning herself so she could be in his arms without impeding his ability to read the diary. He suddenly stopped when he was reading an entry about Aerith separating flower bulbs.

"Why'd you stop?" Ravena asked.

"Aren't you tired yet?"

"No, please keep reading."

"Uh, if you're sure." Reno swallowed hard and continued reading her entry about the first time they had sex.

"Why did she call you infamous?" Ravena asked as she tried not to get jealous about another woman having sex with Reno.

"Um…I think it's cause I'm good at what I do." Reno hurriedly started reading more. There weren't that many more entries, and he closed the diary and put it back on his nightstand.

"Is that it?" she asked.

"Yeah, that's all she wrote."

"How come?"

Reno took a deep breath. "She was killed."

* * *

During breakfast the next morning, Reno told her they were going shopping for more clothes for her.

"I've got the day off, and you can see what the world out there is like." Reno said as he finished his leftover pizza."

"Is it safe out there?" Ravena asked. Some of the TV shows she saw made her think staying inside wasn't that bad.

"Don't worry, I'll be with you the whole time." he reassured her.

While she was getting her clothes from the closet, she stared puzzledly for a moment at the jacket she remembered from her first night here with Reno before getting dressed and leaving.

* * *

Ravena was amazed and scared by the mall. It was so big, and there was so many people there! She clung to Reno's side, not letting go of his hand unless she was picking out clothes. The only time she was away from Reno is when she went into the lingerie store. He gave her his credit card and then went and sat down at the bench right outside, putting the dozen bags down next to him. She came out about half an hour later, with five more bags. Reno sighed, realizing he was going to have to dip into his savings to pay his credit card bill this month.

He was cheered up that night, when Ravena modeled the lingerie she had gotten for him. This time when they had sex, the voices didn't interfere like last time, and she thought she understood what they were trying to tell her. It was something that had been nagging at her all day.

"Reno?" she asked as she lay contented in his arms.

"Yeah?" he replied as he stroked her hair.

"Am…am I Aerith?"


	5. Chapter 5

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think so." Reno said after a long pause.

"But…you said Aerith had been killed. How can I be her?" she started to shiver with panic.

"I don't know. And no one I've talked to seems to know either." Reno tightened his arms around her for comfort.

She tried to calm down, but she couldn't escape the feeling of everything closing in on her. She had an overwhelming desire to leave. As soon as she saw that Reno was asleep, she carefully got out of bed and quietly got dressed. When she slowly opened the door, she paused for a moment and looked back at Reno. Frowning, she took a deep breath and left.

* * *

Once outside on the street, she wasn't sure where she should be going. She just started walking fast. The city seemed almost dead to her, and that bothered her. _Where were the voices when she really needed them to tell her what she needed to do_? She was distracted when a man grabbed at her, asking how much she cost. She wrenched herself away and started running across the street to get away from him when she heard a horn honk, and turned her head to see lights coming at her and the sound of brakes screeching, then she heard and felt nothing at all.

* * *

Reno woke up to his alarm buzzing. Shutting it off, he turned over in bed. "Are you ready for breakfast?" he asked, then realized the bed was empty.

Sitting up, he called out for her, but there was no answer. Concerned, he got up and looked around. That's when he noticed the door wasn't closed all the way. Cursing under his breath, he checked his scanner for incidents during the night, and as soon as heard the report of a Jane Doe fitting her description being taken to Meteor Memorial Hospital, he headed out the door, coming back a few moments to get some clothes and shoes on before leaving again.

* * *

Yuffie was walking through the hallway in the hospital, during an errand for Reeve, when she heard a familiar voice. She froze in her tracks, and looked in the room she heard the voice coming from. She saw a battered and bruised woman in the hospital bed tossing and turning, and Reno sitting by her bed, not paying attention to anything else but her.

"Aerith is dead…I'm not, am I? I'm…I'm Ravena, aren't I? I want to be alive, I don't want to be Aerith!" the woman kept saying over and over again in her sleep.

 _It couldn't be her, could it_? Yuffie was stunned. The voice was right, but not the hair, but that could easily be changed. She was stunned further when Reno took the woman's hand in his and it seemed to calm her down some.

She looked at the room number, and then went to the nurses' station. "Can you tell me who the woman in 367 is? I'm looking for my sister." Yuffie lied to the nurse there.

"Oh, our Jane Doe. She was brought in after getting hit by a car in the middle of the night. You must have a close family, her cousin was very upset when he came here looking for her." The nurse said, then realized Yuffie had left.

Once outside, Yuffie took out her cellphone. "You're not going to believe this. You need to get everyone over to Meteor Memorial Hospital, _**now**_!"

* * *

Reno came back from the cafeteria where he had gotten a bite to eat, and was surprised to see almost the entire Boring Brigade, minus the animals, in her room. They turned around all at once when he entered the room, glaring at him.

"You've done enough, get out of here!" Tifa said through clenched teeth, her demand echoed by the others.

Reno left rather than cause a scene. Maybe it was better this way, and they would be able to help her since he didn't know how to.

* * *

She woke up the next day, calling Reno's name, and opened her eyes when an unfamiliar hand grasped hers. She saw a man with blond spiky hair and a woman with black hair standing next to her bed. It was the man who had her hand.

"Where's Reno?" she asked.

"Don't worry Aerith, he won't hurt you again." the couple reassured her.

"He never hurt me! He took care of me." she exclaimed. Then she stared harder at the man and she remembered something. "You…you were there when I died, weren't you?"

The man hung his head down. "Yes." he mumbled.

"Where's Reno?" she asked again.

Surprised at her insistence at wanting to know where he was, they left to find Yuffie waiting for them in the hallway.

"Something's wrong with her. It's not just the hair and eye color. All she wants is to know where Reno is." they told Yuffie.

"I think I know why." Yuffie handed Cloud the diary. "I took it from Reno's apartment while he was at work."

He and Tifa read it, stunned when they came to the parts about all the times Aerith and Reno had sex.

"Why would she let him touch her, knowing who he was?" Cloud wondered aloud.

"Because he's good at what he does." Tifa and Yuffie answered at the same time, looking at each other in surprise, then blushing as Cloud looked hard at both of them.

He slammed the diary shut. "So what do we do? I don't trust Reno to take care of her."

"I also found a lot of women's clothes there, some were still in their shopping bags. And I found a lot of Aerith's favorite foods in the fridge. I think he was taking care of her." Yuffie volunteered.

"Cloud, why don't you go home and check on Marlene and Denzel? We'll take care of things here." Tifa said.

He was about to object when he saw the expression on Tifa's face, and reluctantly left. Tifa and Yuffie went back into Aerith's room, and she was sitting up, trying to get out of bed.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tifa exasperatedly asked, pushing her back down on the bed.

"I don't want to be here." Aerith said.

"Where do you want to be?" Yuffie asked.

"I'm…I'm not sure." Aerith admitted.

"I think this belongs to you." Tifa handed the diary to Aerith, who clutched it to her chest. "How long have you been back?" she asked her.

"I don't know. I was suddenly someplace bright and cold. Reno was there. He made me warm again." She shivered in remembrance of that bitter cold.

"He's good at that." Yuffie said in a sarcastic tone, ignoring the sharp look Tifa threw her way.

"Aerith-" Tifa started to say when she interrupted.

"I'm not Aerith! I don't want to be! Aerith is dead…I'm Ravena!" she insisted.

"Okay Ravena, calm down." Tifa said. "Keep an eye on her, I'm gonna talk to her doctor." she said privately to Yuffie before leaving.

* * *

Reno reluctantly opened the door to his apartment. He had been out with Rude at their favorite bar, making up for lost time. But none of the women there interested him. He ended up drinking more than he should have. Reno staggered to his bedroom and threw himself down on the bed. Instead of passing out, he became instantly alert when he realized someone else was in the room with him.

"Who's there?" he demanded, standing up.

"You're home late." a woman said, coming out of the bathroom.

"Aerith!" he exclaimed.

She frowned. "I _was_ Aerith. I'm Ravena now."

Reno was about to say something else, but Ravena thoroughly distracted him with something more important to do.

* * *

Tifa was fixing dinner when she was surprised by Cloud's sudden appearance. "You're home early." she said.

"No more delivery requests." Cloud explained. "Where's Aerith?"

"It's Ravena now. Her doctor said there's nothing wrong with her. She just doesn't want to be Aerith anymore. You remember how stubborn she could be. So all we can do is respect her decision to want to be Ravena, because she's still our friend no matter what, right?."

Cloud reluctantly nodded. "That doesn't tell me where she is."

"At Reno's. And Reeve said he'd be willing to find a job for her at WRO. She'd be able to afford getting her own apartment if she wanted."

"You wanna tell me what you meant at the hospital about Reno being good at what he does?" he asked.

A buzzer suddenly sounded. "Oh look, the oven's done. Go set the table and get the kids down here, and we'll have dinner." Tifa hurried into the kitchen, not wanting to explain about that first night after Cloud realized he had Geostigma and moved out, when she ended up getting beyond drunk with Reno and Rude.

* * *

Two months later, Reno and Rude were sitting at the bar after work, when Reno's phone buzzed with a picture message. Rude couldn't help but see it since they were sitting right next to each other. It was a pair of skimpy panties dangling off a woman's finger. From Cotton Candy to Candy Corn. I'm waiting.

"Who is Cotton Candy?" Rude asked as he read the message.

"Sorry partner, I gotta go." Reno said as he bolted out the door.

* * *

Reno tried not to get frustrated as he had to fight through rush hour traffic. He finally got to the church and hurried inside. He saw the pair of panties lying in the doorway, and other pieces of clothing making a line to where Ravena waited for him on a blanket in the middle of her flower patch. He smiled and took off his clothes as well, leaving them next to hers.

"You're late." she chided him.

"Traffic was a nightmare." he apologized as he covered her naked body with his.

Ravena smiled when he kissed her neck as her body welcomed his. She had deliberately picked out an apartment across town from his, so it wasn't so easy for them to find time for each other, making it that much more intense when they were able to meet, just like now. She clung to him as she cried out for the first time that night.

"Happy anniversary." he told her when they had worn themselves out.

"Happy anniversary." she replied, snuggling against him before they both fell asleep.

* * *

When Deepground started their offensive, Ravena ended up in the hospital again, mentally overwhelmed by the forced manipulations of the lifestream and the planet. It took a long time for her psyche to recover, and Reno felt himself almost going insane with worry for her as well. When she was finally released from the hospital, Reno took her back to his place, and a week later, he popped the question and asked her if she wanted to buy a house together.

It took them five months to find the right house. When Reno said he wanted a nice yard for having barbecues at, Ravena started looking for a house close to a fire department. And when she started looking for a gourmet kitchen so she could learn cooking, Reno started looking for a house close to the hospital. They finally found a lovely two story house, with a hospital and fire department within a two block radius.


End file.
